HP Sprectre OS reset

[martinduo]

I am setting up a new HP Spectre x360  with Windows 10 Pro and I mistakenly logged in with my Microsoft Account. That set me up with an administrator account with a user name made up of the first 5 characters of my email address. But my old PC has a user name which is my first name. I have several file handling utilities that rely on a directory structure of C:/User/<name>, where <name> is my first name. I've tried googling and tried several suggestions, but none lead to a place to actually change the name. I did find one way to rename my user name on my MS account site, except that it changes my email address as well. I'm thinking that I have to run Local Reset to install Windows again so that I can bypass the login to Microsoft and create a local account. But a Local Reset saves my settings, does that include my account and user name? Or am I asked to do that again so that I can skip it this time.? Is a Local Reset a viable way? It won't be too hard, I've only installed a few apps and I can do those over again. Does Local Reset change the installed drivers? I'm at a loss. Thanks for any help.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You should be able to switch from logging in with your Microsoft account to using a local account.

See this link for more info...

How to Switch to a Local User Account on Windows 10 (howtogeek.com)

[martinduo]

Hi Paul,

Using that link I was able to create a local account.

But that did not solve my problem.  Windows file manager still shows the same C:/Users/<oldname>/ instead of C:/Users/<localname>/ that I need.

And I don't seem to have access to an administrator account. Trying to open PowerShell as administrator results in a request to enter the administrator password with no data entry field presented.

So I'm back to my original question about using a Local Reset. Will that work?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hopefully it will.

Otherwise if your notebook is supported by the HP cloud recovery tool, make a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

When you initially set up your notebook, if you don't connect to the internet, you can create a local account and not be forced to use your Microsoft account to log in.

See this link.

How to Create a Local Account While Setting Up Windows 10 (howtogeek.com)